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Housing Act 1985
Act of Parliament
	Parliament of the United Kingdom
Long title	An Act to consolidate the Housing Acts (except those provisions consolidated in the Housing Associations Act 1985 and the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985), and certain related provisions, with amendments to give effect to recommendations of the Law Commission.
Citation	1985 c. 68
Territorial extent	England and Wales
Dates
Royal assent	30 October 1985
Commencement	1 April 1986
Status: Current legislation
Text of statute as originally enacted
Text of the Housing Act 1985 as in force today (including any amendments) within the United Kingdom, from legislation.gov.uk.

The Housing Act 1985 (c. 68) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The act introduced laws relating to the succession of council houses.^[1] It also facilitated the transfer of council housing to not-for-profit housing associations.^[2]

Selected contents

Overcrowding

Paragraph 236 replicates part 10 of the Housing Act 1935, including using space standards as a means by which to control overcrowding. A breach of these standards is a criminal offence.

Table 1 maximum people per allowed room
No. of rooms	No. of people
1	2
2	3
3	5
4	7 1⁄2
5 or more	2 for each room

Table 2 Minimum room size per person
Floor area of room	No. of people
110 sq. ft. (10.22m²)	2
90 ‒ 110 sq. ft. (8.36 ‒ 10.22m²)	1 1⁄2
70 ‒ 90 sq. ft. (6.5 ‒ 8.36m²)	1
50 ‒ 70 sq. ft. (4.65 ‒ 6.5m²)	1⁄2

A child under 10 is counted as one half of a person.^[3]

Section 610

Section 610 provides a power for the County Court to vary the terms of a lease or a restrictive covenant to allow for conversion of a single dwelling into two or more dwellings, where either the lease or the restrictive covenant would prohibit such a conversion. The power can be exercised where local housing need and demand has changed since the dwelling was built, or where planning permission for the conversion has been granted, and after consultation with "any person interested" in the matter. The use of this mechanism to facilitate change in residential property usage offers an alternative to the use of section 84 of the Law of Property Act 1925, which (in its amended form) provides for circumstances in which the Lands Tribunal can discharge or revise a restrictive covenant. The use of section 610 was reviewed in the Appeal Court case of Lawntown v Camenzuli in 2007, where Lord Justice Richards noted that there had been relatively few reported legal cases where interpretation of the section had been raised.^[4]

References

Notes

^ Wilson, W. (2014) Succession rights and social housing, House of Commons Research Paper, SN/SP/1998, p. 2
^ Hal Pawson, Cathy Fancie (10 September 2003). The evolution of stock transfer housing associations (Report). Joseph Rowntree Foundation. ISBN 1-86134-545-3. Retrieved 3 March 2017.
^ Park 2017, p. 26.
^ England and Wales Court of Appeal (Civil Division), Lawntown Ltd v Camenzuli & Anor [2007] EWCA Civ 949, paragraphs 4-8, delivered on 10 October 2007, accessed on 24 September 2024